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Solo sailor, 16, missing as beacons activated


Absolution

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It is understood one of the beacons is attached to a survival suit or life raft and is activated only when a sailor is in the water or in a life raft.

I think whatever is said around here debating the principle, we are all going to feel pretty average if it turns out that the worst has happened.

 

Selected quotes from the updated report on Stuff below:

'

'From all accounts she's as well prepared as she can be ... but obviously a two beacon activation is a concern. And obviously the weather - around about 90 km/h winds and six metre seas. It's extremely rough.

Ms Lusk said it would take the aircraft about four hours to reach the search area, located approximately 3200km west/south-west of Perth.

''It really is out in the middle of the ocean,'' she said.

''One of the beacons she actually has GPS enabled, which is brilliant because that allows us to pinpoint her location much more accurately and quicker.''

Ms Lusk said three rescue vessels had had been dispatched from Lower Reunion, a tiny French territory east of Madagascar, but would take some time to reach the sailor.

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Solo sailors all have that "100 yard stare" thing going on ..... they're all half a bubble of plumb but I'm not sure if its a result of the solo sailing or if it causes the solo sailing.

 

It sounds like this young lady has got into difficulties. While the rescue crews will no doubt find her, we can only hope that she'll be alive when they do so. If not it will mean that these brave souls have risked their lives for little or nothing.

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True, but the risk is less than the sailors of the past had to endure.

 

I'm knot to sure that is actually the case. I'd say the risk is all still there just how it is managed or handled has changed. Along with that change has been a decrease of risk in some areas but a big increase in others.

 

These days how many times have you seen cock-up reports that say 'trusted the GPS', where back in the day they had to use a to more smarts.

 

Shipping now travelling a LOT faster and in larger numbers, that's newish. See more and more incidents with yachts verse ships.

 

Marketing. According to many yacht builders all their craft are capable of doing offshore. That's proving to be a some what optimistic call in more than a few cases. These days people do believe marketing more than back in the day when boats were build like brick dunnies.

 

Yachts are faster now so when it goes bad it often happens a lot faster.

 

There has been some hugely good gains but equally there has been/is risks now that weren't there before.

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"We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard." - John F Kennnedy.

 

I don't have a problem with teenagers setting off to sail solo around the world as long as they and everyone else understand that its not the safest endeavour in the world. With proper preparation and the right equipment and attitudes it can be done relatively safely, however, it must be remembered that you're taking on the ocean. Some very experienced and well prepared people have come to grief on the ocean. There is an element of luck involved.

 

As you so eloquently put it Squid, of 10 that set out we should not expect to be welcoming all 10 back to safe harbour. But as long as they take on the challenge with the knowledge that they may not return, then I'm OK with that.

 

What we don't need is a bunch of hand-wringing, pansy ass, safety nazis who go and change the regulations for everybody just because Johnny Pimplebum wiped himself out in the Sthn Ocean during his attempt to be the youngest blindfolded transgender conjoined twin to sail solo around the world in a plantpot.

 

I agree with this. I hate the nay-saying, play-it-safe attitude that prevails in our societies. These guys are pushing the boundaries though.

 

Everyone says to me "What do you think of the Jessica Watson thing?" and I always respond that I thought she was lucky, that I wouldn't discourage my daughters from setting big goals and chasing them, but that I would never encourage them to do something with such a high probability of death when they had their whole lives in front of them.

 

I hate the 'youngest-round' thing because the inevitable scenario that was going to play out is happening now.

 

I hope she gets rescued. I know that the people trying to help here are very professsional and have the resources, but she'll need some luck.

 

I read the corresponding thread on Sailing Anarchy and it pissed me off. Half the posters seem to think she deserves the situation and the rest seem to think God is going to save her (implying I guess that God is a simultaneously a Qantas flight captain and a Philipino cargo ship captain).

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Thread drift alert.

 

That reminds of a family we met in Tahiti (early 80's??) They had sailed out from California in a piece of sh*t that I wouldn't leave the dock on, no knowledge, no skills. But members of one of those fruity SoCal churches.

Everyone in Papeete told them not to go any further. No they said - God will look after us.

They left and ended up on Middleton reef.

Standing waist deep in water with the tide coming in the third time, he turns to her to say goodbye. She says look a boat.

It was a group from their church in California that had chartered a boat for a diving expedition.

They were rescued, wrote a book and last I heard were looking for another boat.

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Hey MarkM there still seem to be plenty of people hitting the hard bits, which mostly haven't moved in a long time. GPS assisted groundings I believe they're called.

 

Squidly, if you want to be free to go sailing whenever you want, unrestricted, then surely everyone must be free to go sailing - even those that may be seen as as being too young? Or do you want a "it's ok if I do it but not if you do it rule"? More rules are inevitable. It is, apparently, a sign of an advancing society.

 

A young 16 year old girl faces more dangers than just the sea and weather. Rotten people exist on the water too and yachts ain't exactly equipped to get away quick.

 

But I hope she's ok cos she's still someone's kid out there alone.

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Guest Rocket

I see her father is at least realistic - he thinks the keel has come off, the boat is upside down and that she will need a lot of luck to survive.

 

I hope it is just the rig has come down and she is cutting it away - but can't help but think she would use her sat phone if that was the case.

 

Not quite sure what the chartered jet does for them. I would have thought a plane capable of dropping a raft would be more useful.

 

Awful for them - very ugly bit of water down there.

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Guest Dry Reach

True, but the risk is less than the sailors of the past had to endure.

 

I'm knot to sure that is actually the case. I'd say the risk is all still there just how it is managed or handled has changed. Along with that change has been a decrease of risk in some areas but a big increase in others.

 

These days how many times have you seen cock-up reports that say 'trusted the GPS', where back in the day they had to use a to more smarts.

 

Shipping now travelling a LOT faster and in larger numbers, that's newish. See more and more incidents with yachts verse ships.

 

Marketing. According to many yacht builders all their craft are capable of doing offshore. That's proving to be a some what optimistic call in more than a few cases. These days people do believe marketing more than back in the day when boats were build like brick dunnies.

 

Yachts are faster now so when it goes bad it often happens a lot faster.

 

There has been some hugely good gains but equally there has been/is risks now that weren't there before.

 

 

KM faster boats mean less time out there! Slow boats are more vulnerable.s

 

and weather routing means you can skirt around the bad stuff! But you try tellin the youff of today that and they won't believe ya!

 

Easier now IMHO

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You're right AA, I believe MarkM was aiming at the same point. I do want to be left alone, but then so should others - correct. Then when too many "others" who aren't experienced, self sufficient, old, competent enough start "doing it" , and we have a safety net that is too easy to activate, all of a sudden society wants to place restrictions on everybody and I loose. Honestly don't know the answer.

I think Grinna's first post was a classic.

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How long till someone asks the cost of chartering an airbus?

Would this have happened to a "lower profile" sailor who had difficulty?

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BTW, some time back I had a think about these "youngest ever" type stories , and I decided not to run any of them on the home page news. I don't want to stop them, but i also think they feed on media coverage, and believing as I did that the inevitable would happen, I was simply more comfortable not giving them any airtime.

Happy to see them discussed on the forums, but they won't appear on the home page.

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Another missing from the list.

 

Also, if you go to the link, below the sotry of Tania is a good spread of wh did what when and how long

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Aebi

 

Tania Aebi (born October 7, 1966) is a Swiss-American woman who completed a solo circumnavigation of the globe in a 26 foot sailboat between the ages of 18 and 21. Despite many challenges, she accomplished her goal and proved to her father that she could complete something.

Aebi recounts the story of her voyage in her book Maiden Voyage. The book is a story of teenage angst, self discovery and adventure. Aebi's story is unusual because she was poorly prepared for her voyage, but prevailed through common sense and determination.

Aebi had practically no sailing or navigation experience when she departed on her journey, on 28 May 1985.[1] Aebi did not have a GPS receiver, since the GPS system was not in operation then. Instead, Aebi had a sextant for celestial navigation and a radio direction finder. She did not sea trial her boat and was plagued by factory defects that could easily have been corrected before departure.

She completed the circumnavigation in Varuna, a Contessa 26. Her arrival back in New York City on November 6, 1987[2] after a cold November transit across the Atlantic was heralded nationally by the news media.

Tarzoon, the cat who traveled more than half the world around with her survived for more than 20 years and died peacefully in its sleep just before she was to undertake a new voyage with her two teenage sons

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Fair 'nuf bout the homepage thing DT. I agree with you wholeheartedly (OMG what's happening here!) If everyone can have a go then they should be allowed to, and yes older, wiser, more seasoned people will be affected by this, because of course if anyone can do it, then they have to make it safe for everyone to do it. How? Throw rules and regulations at it! You could go round in circles til you crawl up your own arse with this dilemma.

 

How do you think this young girls parents would feel, if they got a call saying "your daughters boat is upside down in the Southern Indian Ocean, and she's gonna die 'cos no one's going to try to save her. There are no rescue services available 'cos they cost too much and she knew the risks before she went. Off course for $X,000,000 someone will give a dam and attempt a rescue but no guarantees. Cash first please."

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